The Wendelstein 7-X won’t be winning any awards for catchy name of the year, but the massive new German prototype fusion reactor does represent one of the biggest advances in fusion power in decades. The device also exemplifies what might be the start of a nascent trend; European leadership in energy research and experimentation.
The Wendelstein 7-X is the world’s largest stellarator, a massively complex fusion reactor that was inaugurated by Angela Merkel in a recent ceremony. The reactor is a testing prototype at this stage rather than a commercial energy generation source, but it marks the first time an alternative to traditional fusion power approaches has been tried. The current state of the art in fusion power is a device called a Tokamak. Tokamaks are easier to build than stellarators, but despite decades of support for projects like ITER that rely on that design, no economical fusion reactor has been built yet. The Wendelstein 7-X offers an alternative.

In testing of Tokamak designs so far, no one has yet been able to get a fusion reactor that produces more power than it consumes. It’s unclear thus far if the Wendelstein 7-X will change this, but it might. The problem in fusion power is keeping the reactor matter contained long enough to make significant energy generation a realistic possibility. The Wendelstein 7-X showed promising ability to do just that in very early stage testing. That testing will continue for the next few years up until the German engineering team starts using deuterium to demonstrate the potential for scalable power production.

"The world's longest and deepest rail tunnel has officially opened in Switzerland, after almost two decades of construction work.
The 57km (35-mile) twin-bore Gotthard base tunnel will provide a high-speed rail link under the Swiss Alps between northern and southern Europe.
Switzerland says it will revolutionise European freight transport.
Goods currently carried on the route by a million lorries a year will go by train instead.
The tunnel has overtaken Japan's 53.9km Seikan rail tunnel as the longest in the world and pushed the 50.5km Channel Tunnel linking the UK and France into third place."

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"You've got to get your first tackle in early, even if it's late". Ray Gravell

"An electric racing car built by Swiss student engineers has broken the world record for acceleration by battery-powered vehicles.
The grimsel car took only 1.513 seconds to reach 100kph (62mph) - slashing about a quarter of a second off the previous record time.
So far, no petrol-powered production car has managed to hit the same speed in a comparable time.
The grimsel needed only 30m (98ft) of track to reach the landmark speed.
The previous record of 0-100kph in 1.779 seconds was set by a team from the University of Stuttgart last year. By comparison, the fastest production vehicle, the Porsche 918 Spyder hybrid, takes 2.2 seconds to reach the same speed."

"An electric racing car built by Swiss student engineers has broken the world record for acceleration by battery-powered vehicles.
The grimsel car took only 1.513 seconds to reach 100kph (62mph) - slashing about a quarter of a second off the previous record time.
So far, no petrol-powered production car has managed to hit the same speed in a comparable time.
The grimsel needed only 30m (98ft) of track to reach the landmark speed.
The previous record of 0-100kph in 1.779 seconds was set by a team from the University of Stuttgart last year. By comparison, the fastest production vehicle, the Porsche 918 Spyder hybrid, takes 2.2 seconds to reach the same speed."

"Rolls Royce is developing futuristic ships that will one day sail across oceans autonomously

With so much talk about a future filled with self-driving cars, it’s easy to forget that general advances in autonomous software technologies can also be applied to boats. That being the case, Rolls Royce recently announced that it’s been working on technology that might someday make it possible for gargantuan cargo ships to sail themselves across oceans.

Researchers at Penn State are working to enclose the submarines of the future in a bubble of gas, allowing them to achieve top speeds faster than what is possible while moving through regular water. If successful, it could mean submarines capable of speeds of up to hundreds of miles per hour."

I have no doubt the museum will also be an incredible experience, but at what cost...... Was it really worth raising some timbers (at God know's what cost) and going through the years of preservation/treatment?

Anywho......

Mary Rose Warship: Full View Revealed After Museum Revamp

"A full, uninterrupted view of Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose, is set to be unveiled following a £5.4m museum revamp.
The Tudor warship has undergone 34 years of conservation since it was raised from the Solent in 1982.
Small viewing panels have been replaced with floor-to-ceiling windows and a balcony entered through an airlock, at the purpose-built museum in Portsmouth.
The Mary Rose Trust said it was a "stunning new experience".
Helen Bonser-Wilton, chief executive of the Mary Rose Trust said: "Visitors will have stunning panoramic views of the ship from all nine galleries.
"This is the culmination of decades of hard work by the Mary Rose team and we can't wait to share this stunning new experience with everyone."
The warship was discovered in 1971 in Portsmouth Harbour where it sank in 1545 while leading an attack on a French invasion fleet.
The hull of the ship was brought to the surface after 437 years submerged.
It was taken to an atmospherically-controlled dry dock where it was sprayed with a mist of cold water, then water-soluble wax, before an air-drying process began.
The latest development, which saw the ship close to public view in November, cost about £5.4 million to complete.
The £39m museum first opened its doors to visitors in May 2013. The ship goes back on public view on Wednesday."

"The world’s longest aircraft was brought out of its hanger in England over the weekend. But the first thing most people noticed about the Airlander 10, besides its enormous size, was that its front looked like a huge behind.
...

It’s even been nicknamed “The Flying Bum” by the British media, and photos like this probably don’t help:

Worlds biggest ship. With both the downturn in the offshore oil industry, combined with many older production platforms reaching end of life, this innovative ship should be kept busy.
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Pioneering Spirit is the world's largest platform installation, decommissioning and pipelay vessel.

She was designed and built for Allseas by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, and officially launched from Rotterdam port, on 6 August 2016.[2]

Allseas committed to the project at a cost of US$1.7 billion, however, in an interview with De Telegraaf, Allseas chairman Edward Heerema named a final price of €2.4 billion (US$2.6 billion) for the 382 metres (1,253 ft) long vessel.
Allseas has committed to building an even larger version of the same design, which is scheduled to be operational in 2020.

With a 48,000 tonne Topside lift capacity, the vessel operates as a semi-submersible, ballasting to lower, and install the payload, or de-ballasting to raise and remove the payload.
Two stern-mounted tilting lift-beams provide 25,000 tonne Jacket installation and removal capacity.(not sure that this is correct? the lifting beams appear to be at the bow, and more than 2)

Main diesel power comprises eight 20-cylinder (20V32/44CR) MAN 11,200 kW (each) engines and one 9-cylinder (9L32/44CR) 5,040 kW harbour engine with two engines each in four separate engine rooms (the engines with a total of 169 cylinders generate a total output of 94.6 MW)[9] with 12 Rolls-Royce, type UUC 455, thrusters, each 5.5 MW.

May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil know`s you`re dead!